Swisher's two HR's extends Sox win streak to seven
The way Paul Konerko sees it, the White Sox accomplished something much better than a 7-0 homestand with Monday's 7-5 win over the Twins at U.S. Cellular Field.
They achieved something more difficult than hitting 19 home runs in the four-game sweep of Minnesota, or even getting 10 or more hits per game.
"I think everybody's kind of on the same page where, if we win, everybody will get what they want personally,'' Konerko said after the Sox rallied for a 7-5 victory over the Twins. "That's tough to do with 25 professional players, get that common goal. I think we've got that right now.''
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During the three-game sweep of the Royals to open the homestand, Konerko and Jim Thome started emerging from season-long slumps.
When the Twins came to town, Joe Crede took the baton and hit 4 home runs in the first two games. Then it was Nick Swisher (2 homers) and Konerko again on Monday.
And don't forget about leadoff man Orlando Cabrera (14-for-34) and the surging Alexei Ramirez (12-for-29), who both had monster homestands.
How good was the home cooking for the White Sox? They completed just the fourth undefeated homestand of seven or more games in franchise history while increasing their lead in the AL Central to a season-high 6#189; games.
"For a while there, things weren't going our way,'' said Swisher, who was 8-for-14 with 4 home runs and 8 RBI in the sweep of Minnesota. "Luck has something to do with it, but things are going our way now and every single guy is pitching in right now.''
It wasn't like the Sox were in terrible shape when the arrived home to open the homestand last Monday.
Yes, they lost three straight at Tampa Bay and the hitters were verbally "challenged'' by manager Ozzie Guillen, but the White Sox still landed on the South Side in first place.
Now, they've opened up the biggest lead in baseball, and they have played only 29 home games compared with 34 on the road.
"We haven't played at home much, maybe that's what it is,'' Konerko said of the turnaround. "We've played so many road games early; we're just excited to play at home, I guess. It was obviously a real good homestand. I think the main thing for us is to not lose any momentum on this flight here to Detroit. It's only three games, try to take two out of three and get back here and keep it going.''
Konerko finally got it going on the homestand, and his 2-run homer in the seventh inning off relief Matt Guerrier Monday snapped a 5-5 tie.
"It's a good feeling,'' Konerko said. "I didn't really have anything going all day. I felt OK, but they pitched well. Their starting pitcher (Glen Perkins) did a heck of a job, I thought. That was one of those balls I was really surprised to see go over the fence. I put good wood on it, but I thought it would probably go to the (warning) track and that would be it.''
When the homestand started, Konerko was batting .205. He's now up to .216.
"When you get results, it kind of validates that you're doing good things up there,'' said the Sox' captain. "This last stretch of a month or so, I really felt I was doing good things and it just wasn't happening. That's something I never really dealt with before.
"It's going to come, but so is the end of the year. You want it to come and you know it's going to come, but I'm still not out of the woods yet. There are a lot of us still battling as far as that stuff goes.''
White Sox 7, Twins 5
At the plate: The Sox hit 19 home runs during the undefeated seven-game homestand and are batting .341 over their last eight games. Switch hitter Nick Swisher homered from both sides of the plate for the sixth time in his career. He was the first Sox hitter to homer from both sides since Jose Valentin on July 30, 2003. Orlando Cabrera was 4-for-5.
On the mound: Starter John Danks pitched 6 innings and allowed 5 runs (4 earned) on 8 hits. Matt Thornton got the win after pitching 1 scoreless inning of relief. Bobby Jenks allowed 2 hits in the ninth but worked out of trouble to pick up his 15th save.
-- Scot Gregor